The last couple of months have been downright amazing for Cheyne Whitney and Meghan Rickey, winners ofÂ The Amazing Race. The pair won the million dollar prize on the 15th season of theÂ CBS reality competition in December and, as of this past weekend, are now engaged! Keep reading for all of the elaborate and romantic details that went into Cheyne’s incredible proposal…

When high school sweethearts, Cheyne Whitney and Meghan Rickey, wonÂ The Amazing Race last December, everyone wanted to know if wedding bells were in the future for the cute couple, but Cheyne played his cards close to the chest. When Reality TV Magazine‘s own Christine McDow interviewed the pair and asked about possible wedding plans, Cheyne joked, Â ”Yes we are still togetherâ€¦ the rest is confidential!”

â€œOther than â€˜what are you going to do with the $1 million,â€™ the question that comes up the most is, â€˜when are you guys going to get married?â€™â€ Cheyne Whitney tells PEOPLE. â€œAnd Iâ€™ve been planning this since theÂ Race ended, so Iâ€™ve been like, â€˜Iâ€™m working on it! Iâ€™m working on it!â€™â€ The thing that Cheyne’s been planning is a romantic and elaborate proposal which he pulled off successfully this past Sunday in San Diego.

After Cheyne faux-proposed on The Jimmy Fallon Show shortly afterÂ The Amazing Race concluded in December, BRIDES magazine called the couple thinking the engagement was real. Cheyne intercepted the call and recruited the wedding mag to help with his plan. “IÂ kind of intervened and said, â€˜Hey, would you like to work on the proposal? I have some ideas!â€™ And they were super-helpful. I really did plan it since Dec. 10. For two-and-a-half months I have been planning this day!â€ Cheyne says.

So how did he pop the question? AfterÂ The Amazing Race winnersÂ spent a night in the Omni Presidential Suite in downtown San Diego,Â Cheyne says, “we went on a helicopter ride off the coast, had lunch at a winery, went home and then did a walk down memory lane. We went to the elementary school we met at, the middle school we always used to hang out at, the high school we became really good friends at, and then went to this little lookout point where weâ€™ve been going since we started dating.â€

At that point Cheyne handed a copy of BRIDES magazine to Meghan under the guise of showing her some rings. When he opened to the page though, Meghan was shocked to see her name, a picture of the pair, and the words ‘will you marry me’Â â€œI was shocked,â€ Meghan admits. â€œI was kind of confused at first, like, I just didnâ€™t know what was going on but once it hit me, I was in tears, and I was totally overwhelmed and shocked! It felt like I had wonÂ The Amazing Race!â€

After pulling out the ring–a platinum engagement ring with a princess cut diamond and diamonds on the side–Cheyne told her “that Iâ€™ve known since we started dating that she was the one.â€ And as if all of that isn’t enough, Meghan was even more shocked a moment later when an Entertainment Tonight camera crew jumped out of the bushes after capturing the whole thing on film.Â â€œI didnâ€™t realize Cheyne had done all that work to make this happen,” Meghan says.

The couple doesn’t have plans to wed anytime soon, but after such a thoughtful proposal, Meghan jokes, “Iâ€™ve been very impressed by his planning abilities, and he may be doing more of the wedding planning!â€